Ambler's Head Start classroom to relocate; future of Mattison Avenue Elementary building uncertain

The Mattison Avenue Elementary School building, located on Rosemary Avenue in Ambler Borough, will be used for the Ambler Area YMCA’s summer camp program this summer after the school is closed at the end of the current school year. Plans for the building beyond this summer, however, remain unknown at this time. Photo by Bob Raines/Journal Register News Service.

AMBLER — It appears the Head Start program is here to stay in the Wissahickon School District after Mattison Avenue Elementary School closes; it’s just going to need a new home.

As for the future of the building itself, no decision has been made as of yet.

In January the Wissahickon School Board voted to close Mattison Avenue Elementary School after the school year ends in June, putting the early childhood education program, which has called Mattison Avenue its home, in jeopardy. Since the program is run by the county, the ultimate decision about its future is out of the hands of the district, though talks between the two have begun.

District Superintendent Judith Clark confirmed that while no decision has been reached, talks between the county and the district about where in the district the program would relocate have occurred.

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Interim Executive Director of the Montgomery County Head Start Program Bertha Johnson said the program will not continue to use Mattison Avenue for its location after June, but will instead use a different building in the district that has yet to be determined.

“It’s only one classroom that we have in the building,” she said. “For us to have a whole building for one classroom is not financially responsible.”

Meanwhile, the long-term future of the Mattison Avenue building remains unknown at this point.

Clark said the school board really wants to wait until after the redistricting of the district’s elementary schools to make a decision about the building’s future, so that students are taken care of first, “which is truly how it should be,” she said.

Clark said the district will be able to talk more about the building’s future after the April 22 school board meeting, when the redistricting plan is approved by the board.

It does appear that the building will still be available for Ambler Borough to use for camps and other programs, at least through the summer.

Advertisements on the Ambler Area YMCA’s Facebook page confirmed it would be using Mattison Avenue for its Knight Park Camp program, which runs from June 24 through Aug. 2.

Borough Manager Mary Aversa stated in an in an email that there are “no current plans except for our summer camp program.”

Aversa was quoted in January stating she hoped the district would sell the building to the borough for a “miniscule amount,” so that the borough could continue to use it as a disaster relief shelter and an athletic center and for summer camps and the Head Start program.